Parents worried changes to Midnapore language program could lead to the end
Posted Nov 24, 2016 5:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Parents of students enrolled in Mandarin Bilingual Program South are concerned the Calgary Board of Education is breaking its promise and that proposed changes could eventually lead to the end.
According to the CBE, around 100 students are enrolled from K-6 in the program, with about eight in Grade 6.
In a letter sent this month, CBE Area V Director Sydney Smith and Director of Planning and Transportation Carrie Edwards said that’s not enough.
“Currently, there are not enough students enrolled to offer a quality program beyond elementary school. In addition, there are currently not enough qualified Mandarin-speaking teachers to support expanding the program at this time,” the letter stated.
“If we are unable to offer the program, grade six students wishing to continue their Mandarin Bilingual Programming will have the opportunity to attend the junior high school program in the North with subsidized transportation,” the letter said.
But that isn’t sitting well with some parents, like Darlene Casten.
“They’ve known they’ve been facing this issue for a number of years, but they’ve continued to tell us in writing and verbally that we were going to get a south junior high program, however that changed this September and we were all caught very much by surprise,” she said.
The program has been in Calgary for about 15 years and began in Midnapore in 2009, with the goal of having a curriculum going all the way to Grade 9.
Casten said if it were limited to Grade 6, it could potentially lead to the end.
“People don’t want their kids in a K-6 Mandarin program, it’s a very difficult language and people feel that up to Grade 9 is what’s needed and we’re concerned that people are going to start leaving the program,” she said. “Because parents who have kids in the school now from K-6 are going to say this isn’t worth it, my kid’s not going to now Mandarin by Grade 6, why am I doing this?”
The program is a 50/50 split between Mandarin and English, with subjects like math and science in the second language.
Fellow parent Jacklyn Chan said it’s been incredibly beneficial to her children and a change to the north would be almost impossible to accommodate.
“It really is ridiculous we’re expected to take our children on a 30-km bus ride,” she said, adding her kids are involved in many other activities. “Their brains are like sponges at this age and if it’s spent on a bus, it’s just going to be wasted.”
The big travel concerns are time, suggesting going to the North in the winter could take up to 90 minutes, as well driving conditions.
However, there appears to be some hope, as the CBE letter states a final decision won’t come until April 2017 and Casten said they’ve provided some alternative options.
“They’ve done it before, they can do it again and we have large numbers of kids following up behind them that can fill a junior high here, so we’re working with the CBE to get them to reconsider and follow up on the promise that they made us in the first place,” Casten said.
